Motography (Jan-Mar 1916)

MOTOGRAPHY Vol. XV, No. 7. MARY PICKFORD IN "SPECIAL" Famous Players Star to Be Seen in Seven-Reel Feature in Large Cities Before Regular Release on Paramount Program "Pour Little Peppina," in which Mary Pickford is next to appear, will be her first seven-reel feature. The play, which was written by Kate Jordan and directed by Sidney Olcott, will be released March 2 on the Paramount program, and is the first Pickford picture released since the formation of the Famous Players-Mary Pickford Company, in which she has a half interest. In "Poor Little Peppina" Miss Pickford again plays the part of the abused child. This time she is a little American girl kidnaped in Italy. To escape her captors she puts on boy's clothing and comes to America. Throughout most of the play, she appears as this ragged little urchin, who acts as messenger boy, bootblack and general servant for a group of counterfeiters. There is opportunity for many exciting adven appalling loss of human life through the negligence on the part of property owners to safeguard the lives of factory workers. The fire in the Triangle shirt-waist factory in which one hundred and forty-five girls were either burned to death or plunged to destruction from the tenth story of the Asche building; and the still more recent Diamond shirt-waist fire in Brooklyn, have served to point out the careless manner in which fire laws are enforced. "The Writing On the Wall" based its theme on the matter of fire protection. In filming the production, Director Tefft Johnson constructed two one-story stores in the lot opposite the Vitagraph studios in Flatbush, equipped them thoroughly as a paint shop and a clothing store and then proceeded to burn them up. He staged a scene with three hundred school children running panic-stricken from the suffocating fumes of the smoke, and portrayed a scene that differs little from almost daily occurrences in a big city. It is a film that every property owner should see. The film tells of a wealthy man who disregards the safety of his tenants by painting his fire escapes instead of replacing them. His own son is caught in the fire and the man perishes in attempting to rescue him. In the character of the wealthy man, Joseph Kilgour gives a powerful portrayal. Naomi Childers, Virginia Pearson, Bobby Connelly, Charles Wellesley and others are in capable roles. "The Writing On the Wall" is a Blue Ribbon Feature, written by William J. Hurlburt. picturized by Marguerite Bertsch and is released as a five-part drama on Monday February 14. i Pickford ( • from tures, before the gang is captured, and the girl is restored to her parents. There is a love story in the play also, the romance between Peppina and the lawyer who befriends the little messenger "boy." In the supporting cast are Edwin Mordant, Eugene O'Brien, Antonio Maiori, Ernesto Torti, Cesare Gravina, W. T. Carleton and Jack Pickford. Special presentations in New York and several other large cities will be given before the regular release. The Famous Players Company has arranged special advertising sheets for exhibitors. Property Owners Should See This Film At a time when so many disastrous fires are causing loss (if life through inadequacyof protection against lire, the latest feature film of the Vitagraph Company just completed, comes at an opportune time, teaching ;i lesson of preparedness that makes it a valuable aid to reformers seeking to better conditions. The officials of the Vitagraph Company plan to give a press exhibition in the near future to which Fire Commissioner Adamon .ind -ill,, cit) officials will he invited. According to fire statistics, there has been an Triangle Now Settled in New Home With a five years' lease that provides that no other film company may have quarters in the building, the Triangle Film Corporation moved Monday, January 24, from Twenty-third street, New York, to the new Brokaw building, in Broadway between Fortyfirst and Forty-second streets, New York. The Triangle takes the entire upper section of the structure, occupying the eleventh and twelfth floors and the roof. On the eleventh floor are the executive offices of H. E. Aitken, president of the Triangle Film Corporation, and the vice-presidents in charge of production, David W. Griffith, Thomas H. Ince and Mack Sennett. The various departments, exchanges, publicity and promotion, etc., are also on this floor. Above are film storage vaults, projection rooms and an emergency studio for rush work on unfinished scenes. The Triangle is fortunate in obtaining quarters in this modern and centrally located building. The amount of rental involved in the lease is said to be between $75,000 and $100,000. Collier Picture Completed William Collier, well known stage comedian signed for the Triangle by the New York Motion Picture Corporation, has nearly completed his Mack Sennett comedy. "Getting Married," and is preparing to devote all his time to a new five-reel Kay-Bee feature which Walter Edwards is directing for Ince. Since his arrival on the coast Collier has been dividing his time between the two studios. "Buster," Collier's stepson, has convinced luce that he has ability far beyond his fourteen years, and is to have an important part in a Forthcoming K.n Bee production.